Stolen cigarette cache site ‘gang stronghold’

Press, 6 January 1987, Page 1

Stolen cigarette cache site ‘gang stronghold’

PA Auckland Detectives who recovered stolen cigarettes valued at $300,000 from a haybarn near Tuakau say the building is on a farm where members of the Black Power gang live. The cigarettes were about half of those stolen from a truck and trailer in Onehunga last month.

Police officers from Onehunga and Newmarket raided the farm, on the Port Waikato Road, on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. The 280 large cartons of cigarettes were found hidden in the haybarn, which was not visible from the road.

Detective Senior Sergeant Tony Hill, of the Newmarket C. 1.8., said that a number of Black Power gang members resided at the farm and it was frequented by a large number of others.

He said that nobody was at the farmhouse apart from a woman and

her children. The farmhouse contained photographs of Black Power gang members, and flags depicting the group’s insignia. It was regarded as a stronghold for the Pukekohe chapter of the gang.

The cache of cigarettes was so large that an insurance company, acting for the owners of the stock, arranged for an articulated truck to go to the farm and retrieve them. Detective Senior-Ser-geant Hill said no arrests had been made in connection with the discovery. He said officers went to the farm acting on information. An insurance company has offered a $lO,OOO reward for information which helps police to recover the cigarettes. . Other cigarette thefts in the Auckland area have seen bulk supplies valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars taken.